If She Were Here
by whenthewallscomecrashingdown
Summary: Rose would have loved to see this. He felt a pang as he thought that, but knew it to be true. If she were here right now she'd be laughing one of her belly laughs and helping him tell the story.
1. Chapter 1

**If She Were Here—**

"Granddad?" The young voice of a six year old girl brought the old man from his thoughts.

"Yes, Antlia?" The old man smile fondly down at his young granddaughter, remembering what a real surprise to the family when she was born. Her older brother, Percy was six years her senior, about to embark on his second year at Hogwarts. Percy's real name was Perseus and the old man smiled again, recalling how it was a family tradition, after all, to be named after constellations. And his young grandson and granddaughter were no different.

"What happened to Grandmum?"

Immediately the old man stiffened and glanced around. His son Caelum was in the kitchen with his wife, his sister Cassiopeia, and her fiancé. They were supposedly talking "grown up talk" which he was apparently excluded from; he was far too grown up for "grown up talk". So now Caelum's youngest child sat in front of him, wide eyed and curious and he had no idea what to do. Should he tell the girl? And then Antlia's older brother Percy came in, just able to hear the last of the conversation.

"Lia! Dad told us never to ask about her!" he shushed his sister quietly, thinking his grandfather couldn't hear him. "Mum says it's not polite to intrude on other people's private business."

The elderly man sat rigid in his seat. For the first time in a long time, he wanted to talk about it. Before he left this earth he wanted his grandchildren to know about their grandmother, from him. He owed them that much.

"It's fine, Percy. I think it's about time I told the two of you about your grandmother." He sighed heavily, sinking into the chair. It was going to be a long story.

He didn't miss the widening of Percy's eyes as he glanced down at his sister. At twelve, Percy was trying to pretend to act uninterested in what his grandfather was going to say, but he just couldn't mask it well enough. His grandfather smiled at the remembrance of his own awkward second year.

"Oh good!" Antlia sighed delightfully, clasping her hands together. She clutched a pink, ratted teddy bear in her hands, squeezing it until its eyes practically bulged from the force of her tiny arms wrapping around it.

"Now, Antlia, since you asked. What do you want to know?"

"How did you two meet?" His granddaughter asked, blushing sweetly.

And then he was transported back in time, when life was simpler and things were exactly as they should be….

_It was 2017, and Scorpius was excited for his first year at Hogwarts. His father and mother were standing with him at the train station, and all three of them were staring at the gleaming red train in front of them. Smoke from the trains wisped around the platform, making it hard to distinguish peoples' true identities. But even from across the station, smoke wisps and all, it was hard to ignore the large family of redheads who, at that particular moment, were all looking over at him with interested glances._

_He looked back at his father anxiously, wondering why the redheaded family was staring at them._

_His father glanced down at him and clasped a hand on his back. "Son, those are the Weasleys and the Potters. I've told you a bit about them."_

_Scorpius nodded eagerly, wondering if maybe now his father would explain why he "respected them, but didn't like them". Instead he got this advice:_

"_Ignore that lot, is my advice to you. Ignore them and your life will be much happier." And then his father squeezed his shoulder one more time._

_But Scorpius just couldn't resist looking back at that family just one more time. And there, in the middle of it all was the prettiest girl his eleven year old self had ever seen. She had dark red hair, and dark blue eyes to match and she was laughing, her head thrown back in such radiant laughter that it blinded him. He had never laughed like that, like he hadn't a care in the world. One of the real belly laughs that he heard other people laugh, but thought he would never to be able to laugh. He decided then that maybe ignoring that family might be a lot harder than his father thought._

"Wait, so you met her at your first year at Hogwarts?" Percy interrupted the story, looking awed. "Does that mean that I've might my future wife already?" He sounded panicky and his grandfather laughed at him.

"Of course not, Percy." He said kindly. "Your aunt just met her fiancé two years ago, at work. I was just blessed to know your grandmother for a long, long time."

"Oh," Percy said, looking down.

"Can you keep going please?" Antlia pleaded, grasping the bear again. "I want to know about the first time you talked to her!"

"_Ravenclaw!"_

_Scorpius stiffened in surprise and then awkwardly removed the hat from his head. The Great Hall was silent as he made his way over to the Ravenclaw table. He got a few small smiles as he sat down, his whole body practically shaking. The next person was already up, and the sorting ceremony continued, as he glanced around, trying to get a grasp of his surroundings. He was so enraptured by the night sky on the ceiling that he almost missed the beautiful girl's sorting. He tuned in just in time. _

"_Weasley, Rose!" _

_She was the last to be called. He recognized her immediately, the girl from the station. He waited with bated breath, hoping selfishly that she was sorted into his house. Even if he had to ignore her, stay away from her, not talk to her, at least he could watch her. His whole body relaxed at one word._

"_Ravenclaw!"_

_It seemed like her sorting had taken ages. She smiled brightly and made her way over to the table, taking the seat across from him. She was congratulated and hugged and welcomed like he had not been, the rest of the table welcomed her with open arms and he sat there quietly, listening to her laugh._

"_Would you mind passing me the potatoes, please?" He heard her soft musical voice ask._

_He glanced up immediately; shocked that he was talking to her. He grabbed the plate of potatoes to his left and handed them to her silently._

"_Thank you," she smiled at him. "Malfoy, right?"_

"_Scorpius." He corrected, hating that the first thing that came out of his mouth was his surname._

"_Like the constellation?" She asked him._

_He glanced at her in surprise, but he knew he shouldn't have been surprised that she knew the meaning behind his name. She was in Ravenclaw, after all._

_He nodded the affirmative and felt her eyes rake over him, assessing him._

"_The beast that killed Orion. Powerful name." She noted, "My name's Rose, by the way. Like the flower." She smiled at him and then turned back to the potatoes._

"She complimented you on _your name_?" Percy butted in again.

"Perce! Stop interrupting!" Antlia scolded her older brother. "I want to hear more."

Their grandfather chuckled and then answered his grandson's question. "Yes, she liked my name. I wasn't too fond of it when I was younger, so it was a great help to me to know that at least someone liked it. You know your grandmother is the reason you two are named after constellations. Your father and aunt as well, you're all named after constellations. Your grandmother called us the star family." He said smiling fondly.

The two children stared at him, mouths hanging open as they digested this bit of information.

"So, what happened next?" Antlia said, breaking the profound silence.

"Well, then not much happened, until fourth year."

_He was studying in the library, like usual. He spent most of his time there, studying. It was of the utmost importance that he receive good grades otherwise he might not be able to become an auror, like he always wanted. _

_Suddenly, a dark shadow blocked his light and he looked up, ready to angrily inform the absurd person that they were in his light and could they please move, when he realized that in front of him stood Rose Weasley. She looked a little distracted, perhaps a little upset, as she stood looking around the library._

_He cleared his throat to draw her attention and immediately she looked down at him, surprised, as if she hadn't noticed his presence. He was okay with that, not many people noticed him._

"_Oh, I'm sorry, Scorpius." She always insisted on calling him by his first name, despite the rest of the school referring to him as Malfoy. "I'm in your light am I not?"_

_He nodded slowly and realized her voice sounded like she had been crying. He opened his mouth to say something, but she beat him to the punch._

"_Can I sit with you?" She blurted out the words and even she looked surprised that they had come out of her mouth. "Look, I won't be a problem; I promise I'll be quiet. It's just…I recently broke up with Lysander and he's usually my study partner but that would be awkward and—"_

"_Sit." He said, nodding his head toward the empty seat across from him. She smiled at him gratefully even though he regretted the word almost as soon as it came out of his mouth. He knew his father would not be happy._

_And that was how he and Rose Weasley became study partners, spending almost every evening in the library together, sometimes speaking, and sometimes studying silently. And he continued to watch her, and listen to her lovely belly laughs and corny jokes._

"Percy, are you study partners with a girl at school?" Antlia said, looking at her older brother.

"No!" He exclaimed, turning a bright red.

His little sister giggled and turned back to her grandfather. "Granddad, why do you keep mentioning how you hated our surname? What's wrong with Malfoy?"

The smile that had been on her grandfather's face faltered and he tried to figure out what to say. The post-war era had been a tricky time for all involved. It included a lot of fake happiness and exuberant parties to try and regain some kind of sense of normalcy and liveliness. He had been caught in the latter part of the aftermath, after the reconstruction but too soon after the war for anyone to be forgiving each other yet.

His last name had been a huge burden on him throughout school, and through the efforts of he and his father, his children and grandchildren, thank the good Merlin, had had no affects of the war hanging over their heads. But how do you say that to a twelve and six year old?

"A long, long time ago, even before I was born, your great grandfather and you great-great grandfather were involved in a war." The children's eyes widened, but they were very removed from the situation. It seemed like a long time ago for them, they would never know their greats grandfathers. "They were on the bad side, and your grandmother's family was on the good side. It created some tension."

Percy nodded knowingly. He had probably already heard the basics of the war during his History of Magic class. Antlia looked a little confused, but didn't seem to care too much. She was focused on the _romance_ her grandmother would have been proud.

"So what happened next?" she asked. "After you became study partners?"

_It seemed like the whole school was against them. They only studied together, had been for a year now but they weren't even really in a relationship. They were just friends, if you could even call them that. Acquaintances, actually. Sure, he had heard a little bit about Rose's relationship with Lysander and how it ended (she had caught him cheating) and had comforted her a few times when she saw him with another girl and began to cry. But that was only because he felt awkward just sitting there while she sobbed; he felt like he had to do something. _

_Her cousins had caught wind of their "relationship", no doubt. He had seen the glares they gave him, as if he was the one who cheated on her. He ignored them, like he did everyone else in her family, just like his father advised him. Well, he ignored all of them except for one. Rose Weasley just couldn't be ignored. It wasn't in her genetics. Daughter of the "Brightest Witch of Her Age" and "Harry Potter's Sidekick" she had practically been groomed for attention._

_Everywhere she went, she lit up the room. She made everyone want to be her friend. And, Scorpius thought bitterly to himself, he was no different. He wanted to be her friend._

"_Scorpius?" He jumped a little at the sound of her voice tearing him away from his book. "Will you do me a huge favor?"_

_He eyed her warily. She had on the puppy dog eyes, they eyes that she put on when she wanted something from somebody._

"_It depends on the favor," he said cautiously, neither condemning himself to helping her out, or backing away from her neediness._

"_Will you go to a party with me?" She asked, biting her lip._

_Again he hesitated. He wasn't much of a party person; in fact, he tended to avoid them altogether. He had been to a few and realized that when people were under the influence, they tended to speak their minds a little too much for his taste. He had gotten way too many "death eater spawn" comments to make him want to return to that sort of environment._

"_Please?" She pleaded. "I know it's not really your scene but I promised Al I would go and I don't want to go alone. Also, I think Lysander is going to be there with his new catch and I absolutely can't face him alone."_

_It was only then that his mind wavered. He couldn't leave her alone with Lysander at a party, he couldn't. He didn't care that they had broken up a year ago and Rose was probably only playing the Lysander card to make him come to the party. He remembered how she acted when the breakup scars were fresh._

"_If I must." He complied and she squealed quietly in delight._

"_Perfect!"_

_The music was obnoxiously loud as they entered the room. People were dancing and drinking WATER (not really, but what else was he going to tell his innocent grandkids?) and Rose pulled him along behind her, keeping him with her throughout the night._

_At some point they ended up outside, on a balcony. Rose was tired from all the mingling and laughing she had done earlier (all while her cousins and other assorted friends ignored him). She sighed quietly and laid her head on his shoulder. _

"_You're a good friend, Scorp." She said tiredly. And then Rose Weasley fell asleep on his arm. He had to carry her all the way to the Ravenclaw dormitory later but it was worth it. Especially the next day when her extremely overprotective cousin James came up to him and thanked him for taking such good care of "Rosie" and then proceeded to tell him that maybe he was an "alright kid". It was then that Scorpius realized maybe her family didn't hate him. And that was just one more positive step in the right direction._

Antlia was frowning at her grandfather. "You still hadn't told her you liked her yet?" She demanded to know.

"I didn't know that I liked her!" Her grandfather protested, smiling gleefully at his granddaughter's reactions. Rose would have loved to see this. He felt a pang as he thought that, but knew it to be true. If she were here right now she'd be laughing one of her belly laughs and helping him tell the story.

"Do you have a picture of her?" Antlia asked quietly, as if afraid that her grandfather would deny her the right to see a picture of her own grandmother.

"Of course I do, doll, give me a moment. I have a whole album of pictures of her." He stood slowly, his back creaking with age as he got up, and walked over to the bookshelf in the corner at snail-pace, stretching his limbs after sitting down for a long while. He glanced over the album covers, the albums that Rose had put together "Caelum","Us", "Family", "Scorp", "Cassie", he looked over them all until he found the one that he had created, and dedicated to her, "Rose".

He pulled it from the bookshelf and blew the dust off of the cover. It had been a long time since he had looked at the album. He slowly walked back over to his grandkids, who had been silently watching his every move.

"Here you go," he said, handing the photo album to them. "Every picture in there is of your grandmother." He proudly stated.

The kids practically tore open the cover, anxious to get a peek inside. Their mouths hung open as they saw the beautiful woman on every page, smiling back at them and sometimes even waving. He watched, entranced by their enchantment, as they stared lovingly at the photos of a woman they would never know. HE loved that woman with every fiber of his being and he wished so much that she were here right now, able to tell the story of their lives to their grandchildren.

"She's so _pretty_, granddad!" Antlia exclaimed delightedly, looking up from the photos. Percy just nodded, absorbing all the details that the candid pictures gave him silently.

"She was, she was, very, very pretty." Scorpius sighed wistfully. He suddenly remembered everything about her: her belly laugh resounded in his mind, the way she always smelled of roses, her namesake, and the way she always tried to surprise him, but always ended up giving her own surprise away. Merlin, he loved her.

"She _is_ pretty granddad. Just because she's not here, doesn't mean she's not pretty." Antlia stated determinedly, like only a six year old could do. He smiled fondly as the profound words may their way out of his granddaughter's mouth. She was just like his Rose. She had her brains, certainly, and definitely her personality. She would be just like Rose.

"What about this picture here?" Percy asked, voicing his curiosity for the first time in a while. "You guys look all dressed up?"

Scorpius extended his hand to reach for the album. He barely recognized his own hand: it had become wrinkled with age. When had he become this old? Sometimes he still felt young, sometimes he imagined this was all just a dream and he'd wake up again to Rose by his side, ready to start the morning. But this was his life. He was here with his grandkids, and Rose wasn't.

He glanced down at the picture, tears in his eyes. His younger self wasn't even looking at the camera, but at Rose, on their wedding day. She was beautiful, like always, but she was especially radiant on that day. The way she smiled just showed him how much she loved him.

"That was our wedding day." Scorpius said quietly, hearing the own bittersweet sound in his voice. It was a joyous occasion, but he couldn't help but remember that their anniversary was just weeks away and she wouldn't be here to celebrate it, again.

"Well what happened, Granddad? How did you convince her to marry you?" Antlia asked, clutching her teddy bear.

"I don't know." Her granddad shook his head good-naturedly. "I have no idea how I convinced her to marry me, I guess I just got lucky." He winked at the confused looks on his grandchildren's faces. "I guess it all started, again, in seventh year…."

_They were sitting in the library, again, studying for NEWTs. They were taking the exact same classes so it was easy for them to study together. They had just decided to take a study break after their eyes started to burn from lack of oxygen and the words on the pages started to blend together. Scorpius rubbed his eyes tiredly as Rose sat across from him, her feet propped up on the table. The library was practically deserted; not everyone was as dedicated as they were._

"_Scorp?" he blinked as he tried to get a good look at her face. It was a little bleary, and he wondered if his eyes would ever be the same form all of this intense studying._

"_Yes, Rose?" He had finally become comfortable with saying her name. After three years of 'friendship' or whatever it was that they had, he figured it was about time, too. And he loved saying it. Her name reminded him of happiness and springtime and the smell of a good flower._

"_Do you think we'll keep in touch after school?" she asked anxiously._

_He blinked at her in surprise. In all honesty, he hadn't thought about life after Hogwarts. He had been so focused on making the grades and thinking about becoming an auror that he hadn't actually thought about who he would be hanging out with after school. He figured he'd just hang out with friends that he made during auror training._

"_Well, I don't know why we wouldn't. I think we could manage to see each other occasionally." He grinned at her._

"_I don't want to just see you 'occasionally'! I hang out with you every day! It's going to be weird not seeing you around, and I don't like it!" Rose said angrily, sounding similar to her two year old second cousin, Dora._

"_Well, then, we'll see each other more than occasionally." He suggested, barely hoping that she would actually take him seriously._

"_Okay, Scorp." She smiled brilliantly at him. "I'm glad you agreed. I don't like having my best friends walk out of my life because of something stupid, like growing up."_

_He was caught off guard again, though secretly happy. She considered him one of her best friends!_

"_Okay, Rose. We'll see each other as frequently as possible. And if we can't see each other, we'll write." He proposed._

_She smiled at him again and he knew that she would be in his life for a long, long time._

"And then you got married!" Antlia exclaimed excitedly.

He chuckled. "Not exactly, I hadn't even told her I loved her yet! I didn't know if she loved me! We were still friends!" He exclaimed, enjoying the look of confusion on his granddaughter's face.

"Well, when did you get married?" She frowned, leaning forward and situating herself on her granddad's lap, for better hearing.

"I was getting to that part and then you interrupted me."

"Okay, well then hurry up!" She giggled.

"You want me to finish the story, Percy?"

"Yeah, I guess." His grandson said, trying to be indifferent. His body language told a different story though, as he was inclined toward his grandfather, literally hanging on every word that was being said.

"Okay, then, but since you guys asked. I became an auror and Rose became a journalist. It happened just after a particularly nasty case I had…"

_Scorpius stormed into his apartment, glad that this brutal case was finally over. It was a gruesome one; a lady had come home to see her son dead on the kitchen counter. The killer had been caught. It was a "random killing" or that was what the final reports said. The killer had no real reason for killing the son; he just killed because he could._

_It called into question Scorpius's morality. At any moment, the people he loves could disappear. He just couldn't seem to wrap his head around that. He couldn't imagine life without his parents, his partner Leroy, Rose. His heart skipped a beat. Rose. He couldn't live without her. He loved her. What if he never got the chance to tell her?_

_Suddenly, as if summoned, there was a knock on the door. _

"_It's me! I come bearing food!" Rose's voice called from the behind the closed door. In a second he was at the door he threw it open and immediately he had Rose in his arms and was kissing her. And she was kissing back. Eventually, he realized what he was doing as they both came up for breath._

"_Sorry, Rose. I don't know what came over me, I just…we just wrapped up a tough case and I was thinking about if I could never see you again and—"_

_But Rose cut him off. "About time." She said smiling at him and pulled him in for another kiss._

"And _then_ you two got married!" Antlia said determinedly.

Her grandfather laughed again. "And then we dated, I proposed and she agreed to marry me, yes. And that's that picture there," he said pointing to the picture again.

"And then you had daddy!" Antlia said proudly.

"And then we had your father. And we were so happy. He was the light of our lives."

"And then you had Aunt Cassie!" she smiled delightedly at him again.

His smile faltered. Cassiopeia had been an unplanned pregnancy, six years after Caelum's birth. They had thought they wouldn't be able to have any kids. They thought that this pregnancy was a blessing. But so soon that was taken away from them. Cassie had come early, three months to early. Something was wrong with the pregnancy, something wasn't right.

Rose was in intense pain as the contractions made her body convulse and then the healers had come in to break the earth-shattering news. It was an unusual case, _unusual_ , they emphasized. The bottom line was: it was either Rose or their little unborn child.

Scorpius was tortured right then. If he could, he would have asked the healer to just avada him right there, without a second thought. Choose between his wife and his daughter? What the hell kind of choice was that? How was he to choose?

Rose made the choice for him. She wouldn't hear of it any other way. She was going to die; the little baby was going to live. She had already thought of names, envisioned her future. She was to be named Cassiopeia and Scorpius wasn't going to have a say in this.

His heart broke as he cried and cried, holding onto Rose like his lifeline for her last hours of life. He cursed and wondered what kind of cruel world this was. Rose was steady and calm for knowing that she was dying. He had the Healers notify her parents immediately and they came rushing in but he wouldn't leave Rose's side.

He stayed there while they said their tearful goodbyes. He stayed there as she continued to writhe in the pain of labor for her daughter as she slowly died. He clenched onto her hands until they turned white and he cried some more. He kissed her, her lips, her forehead, her hands. He decided it was awful that he knew she was dying and he was helpless to stop it. He would give anything to be in her place.

And then the time came. And his heart broke as she screamed in agony and the healthy baby emerged from her. The healers took the baby from her exhausted body, letting her hold her child just once before they whisked it off to the baby section of the hospital. He held her in his arms as she died. Her last words to him were "I love you."

He named the baby just as she said. He tried to pull himself together for Caelum, but he had a lot of help from Rose's parents and his own. He was a single dad now. He tried to resent Cassiopeia, she had, after all taken his Rose from him. But he found that he couldn't, she was so similar to Rose and he loved her. She was his daughter. Rose would not have wanted him to resent his own daughter. Their daughter. And so he was alone when he watched Caelum go off to his first year at Hogwarts. He was alone when he did the same thing with Cassiopeia, six years later. He was all alone as the other parents had each other to console.

He never thought of finding another woman. Rose was his, and she was it. There was no moving past it. So he watched his children grow up, and he grew older, and he began to count the days until he could be with Rose again. Soon, he would.

"Granddad?" Antlia's voice pulled him from his memories. He was crying, he realized, as Antlia reached her tiny little hand to his cheek to wipe the tears away. "Did I say something wrong?"

"No, sweetie." He consoled her. "Your grandmother died the same day your Aunt Cassie was born. I was just remembering her, that's all."

"I love you, Granddad." Antlia said quietly.

Suddenly, another presence appeared beside him, it was his daughter, sitting on the arm of the chair.

"I love you too, Dad." Cassie said, smiling Rose's smile. She had Rose's laugh. She was almost an exat replica of her mother, down to the belly laugh.

He looked around to see everyone surrounding him and he was surprised, as a former auror, that he didn't realize he had attracted a larger audience. His son Caelum had his arm around his wife and Casseopia's fiancé was staring at him like he had never seen anything quite like him.

"Well, I love you guys, too." He said smiling. "And if your grandmother were here, I know she'd say the exact same thing."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So I was originally going to update my multichapter stories today, but this idea popped into my head until I sat down and typed it up. I'm actually quite pleased and proud of the result and I hope that you guys enjoy it. I'm really quite proud of this piece, and I would love to hear your thoughts on it.**

**~wwccd**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello ladies (and gents) of cyberworld!**

**I am so happy to inform you that _**_If She Were Here_**_ has been nominated for the RoseScorpius Fans Forum's 2011-2012 ROSESCORPIUS AWARDS! A million thanks to the nominator (cutecudlyme) and to the rest of you who have read and reviewed this story, you are forever my heroes. Check out the Rose****Scorpius** **Fans Forum to see how you can participate. I believe they need more nominations, so if you want to join the forum and nominate some of your other favourite fics, the deadline has been extended to February 29th. Three of my other fics:_**_********_** ******_****_********_********_****_My Best Mate Is Extremely Attractive_**,_ _Four Hours__,_and **_Girl Behind the Curtain_** have also been nominated. Also, feel free to check out my new Scorrose story _Guarded _if you feel so inclined.**

**Please don't favourite without reviewing!  
><strong>

**Happy reading!**

**I wish you all the best-always and forever,**

**~wwccd**


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